A Social Accounting Matrix for Canada

This paper presents a first Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) compiled for Canada. Using data for the year 2000, the authors construct a SAM for the national economy. A SAM extends the National Accounts to allow for a fuller understanding of the socioeconomic system that captures the interdependencies of institutional groups. This paper presents a macro SAM with three micro extensions. The first application expands the household sector through integration with household surveys, showing incomes, outlays, savings, and fiscal transfers of the sector by income quintile and other household attributes. For this exercise, the authors use a market-transaction approach, which introduces a new perspective on household savings that diverges from national accounting concepts and the Canadian System of National Accounts sub-control totals. The second application expands employment income by age, gender, educational attainment, and industry of employment. The third application shows product taxes by type of expenditure and type of tax.